The Obama administration is crediting the healthcare reform law for yesterday's indictment of providers allegedly involved in a $375 million Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme, according to a report from The Hill.
A Dallas physician and the owners of five home health agencies were charged for their alleged participation in a scheme that bilked the federal health agencies over five years. It is the largest alleged home health fraud scheme to date.
The administration credited a 2009 joint initiative between the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, which created the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, for the indictment. The administration also linked the indictment to provisions of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, which allowed CMS to suspend an additional 78 home health agencies associated with the Dallas physician "based on credible allegations of fraud," according to The Hill report.
"Thanks to our new fraud detection tools, we have greater abilities to identify the kind of sophisticated fraud scheme that previously could have escaped scrutiny," HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr said in a news release on the indictment. "Our aggressive Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations have enabled us to break up a significant alleged fraud operation and the fraud-fighting authorities in the Affordable Care Act have allowed us to stop further payments to providers connected to this scheme."
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A Dallas physician and the owners of five home health agencies were charged for their alleged participation in a scheme that bilked the federal health agencies over five years. It is the largest alleged home health fraud scheme to date.
The administration credited a 2009 joint initiative between the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, which created the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, for the indictment. The administration also linked the indictment to provisions of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, which allowed CMS to suspend an additional 78 home health agencies associated with the Dallas physician "based on credible allegations of fraud," according to The Hill report.
"Thanks to our new fraud detection tools, we have greater abilities to identify the kind of sophisticated fraud scheme that previously could have escaped scrutiny," HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr said in a news release on the indictment. "Our aggressive Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations have enabled us to break up a significant alleged fraud operation and the fraud-fighting authorities in the Affordable Care Act have allowed us to stop further payments to providers connected to this scheme."
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